Since the launch of JackTrip 2.5, we are proud to ship our new VST Plug-in, the "Audio Bridge", along with our Desktop App. Here's how you can use the Audio Bridge with your DAW.
Watch our video overview:
Once you install JackTrip 2.5 or higher, the Audio Bridge should automatically be installed on your system, and should show up in your DAW's plug-in list as "JackTrip Audio Bridge".
Here's what the Audio Bridge VST plug-in looks like:
Establishing connection with the Desktop App
The green LED on the top-left indicates a successful connection with the JackTrip Desktop App, and should automatically connect once you start the Desktop App.
If the LED is red instead of green, please make sure that you have the latest JackTrip Desktop App version up and running on your system.
The 'Send' knob
This knob determines how much audio signal you send to the JackTrip Desktop App. All audio that's coming into the plug-in will be send to JackTrip, if this button is turned up, allowing all other participants in a JackTrip studio to hear it as well.
The 'Output Mix' knob
This knob allows you to choose what the plug-in should output inside of your DAW. The default state is Pass-Through, meaning that the signal that's feeding into the plug-in also gets output from the plug-in as well.
Turning the knob all the way to From JackTrip, however, will have the plug-in output the Studio Master signal from JackTrip, allowing you to record or further process the JackTrip audio.
When positioning the Output Mix knob anywhere in between the two extremes, you're setting a ratio that will output a mix between the incoming audio and the JackTrip return.
Inserting multiple instances of the Audio Bridge
Note that you can use as many instances of the JackTrip Audio Bridge as you want.
E.g., if you wish to send multiple audio tracks from your DAW to JackTrip at the same time, you can add an Audio Bridge to each channel you'd like to send, and adjust the Send amount independently.
However, for some applications it might be easiest to simply insert an Audio Bridge on the Master channel, if you desire to send all of your DAW audio to JackTrip anyways.
Please note: If you're sending audio from multiple Audio Bridges to JackTrip at the same time, it might result in digital clipping, as the signal simply adds up. The Audio Bridge has no automatic gain reduction. Thus, it might be a good idea to turn down the 'Send' volume on your Audio Bridges, if you're sending multiple tracks to JackTrip at the same time.
Alternatively, you could create a group with all the channels you'd like to send, and potentially even add a limiter before the Audio Bridge to control clipping.
Preventing Audio Feedback loops
Note that is is also possible to send and receive audio from/to JackTrip at the same time. However, please make sure that no audio feedback loop gets created here.
An example of how you you might accidentally create a feedback loop is by turning the Output Mix knob to From JackTrip, and enabling real-time monitoring for that track in your DAW. This will likely send all the audio you receive on that track out to your DAW's Master channel as well. If you additionally have an Audio Bridge on a channel that receives the Output Mix from JackTrip due to live monitoring (e.g. your DAW's Master channel), you will have established a feedback loop, as you're sending your audio received from JackTrip right back out to JackTrip, which will then feed back into your DAW, and so son, resulting in a quickly rising and unpleasant noise.
Audio Quality
Note that the Audio Bridge uses uncompressed 16-bit PCM audio quality, and supports automatic sample rate conversion.
Latency and Buffer Size
Since the Audio Bridge is a VST plug-in inside of your DAW, it follows global DAW settings, including the set buffer size. Note that a larger buffer size results in higher latency. We thus recommend setting a relatively low buffer size, given that your CPU and memory can handle it.
Inserting multiple instances of the Audio Bridge
Note that the audio sent to JackTrip and received from JackTrip via the Audio Bridge plug-in is separate from the audio you send and receive through your set audio devices in the Desktop App.
This means that you can send your DAW-processed audio (e.g. a synthesized MIDI track) out to JackTrip, and simultaneously send a microphone signal (e.g. through an audio interface selected under your JackTrip Input Devices) out to other musicians.